As the two entered the store, Leah decidedly walked in the opposite direction of Tina.
"Where are you going?"
"To explore a bit. I'm not a baby, you don't need to constantly watch me." Leah snapped back.
Tina gave as understanding a smile as she could. There's still quite a bit of tension between the two of them, despite Tina being part of the family for a while. She understands that Leah has some issues opening up to her. Her new husband tells her to give it time, that Leah never truly got over her mother's death. And while Tina understands that, she also wishes desperately for a child of her own. She works in child care, but somethings are just substitutes. As such, Leah is the closest thing she has to a daughter, and she wants very much to have a good relationship. However, she also feels compelled at times to treat her much younger than she is, which is one of the bigger points Leah dislikes about her. Sometimes, however, Tina wishes Leah would let herself be vulnerable to being babied, and allow herself to heal.
"Okay, just don't go to far or get lost!" Tina shouts back.
"I'm not going to get lost in a store, Tina." Leah responds, rolling her eyes. She sometimes feels bad about how she treats her step-mother. Leah knows she has a chip on her shoulder, and that she should at least give Tina a chance. Her father fell in love with her just like Leah's mother, but Leah didn't know if it's cause of her heart or that her 'hips are perfection' (whatever the hell that means). Worst of all is how much Tina seems to have wanted Leah to be a baby with how she's treated. Since hitting puberty, Leah has never felt comfortable with how the world sees her, like she's a perpetual child. Physically, she's indistinguishable from a toddler at times, and the world never let's her forget it. She feels so much pressure every day to try and disprove the world's perception, and constantly feels like she fails. Sometimes, secretly, she wishes to let those responsibilities go, to stop fighting the world and just 'be'. But after years of bullying, peer pressure, social conditioning, and crying in front of mirrors, that's just a fairy tale.
While walking through the store, she sees a peculiar section: a incredibly long aisle filled from top to bottom shelf with T.V.'s. She got closer, trying to see the end of the aisle.
"Would you like to try?"
Leah jumps, finding a worker standing right next to her with a wide smile. "W-what?"
"I asked if you would like to try. It's a little mental course, to help you achieve mental acuity. Would you like to try?"
Leah looks the guy up and down, unsure of a number of things and this guy being most of them. "What, like hypnosis?"
"Same principle. It's free!"
Leah narrowed her eyes. She couldn't say that she believed in hypnosis, but this place looked too interesting to not jump at the chance.
"Sure, why not."
"Excellent! Here, put this on." He hands her headphones, which she hesitantly puts on. Immediately binaural beats pulse through her ears and she feels her mind calm and empty.
"Okay, now what is it that you want most?"
Her mind couldn't focus on anything other than the question, and her earlier line of thought came back.
"T-to fight against the world's perception of me..." She droned, eyes starting to feel heavy.
"Well, this can only change you can not the world I'm afraid, so...do you want to become...the opposite of the, uh, 'world's perception of you'?"
Her mind flashes to every sleepover that ends with her feeling left out, every time she gets mistaken for a kid, every time someone insults her attempts to look mature. She's been trying to do that since day one. At the core of it...she wants to just...
"Stop fighting..." She drones.
"Huh...sooo become the thing the 'world perceives you as'? Interesting...what exactly is that?"
What does the world perceive her as? One word flashes brightly at the top of her thoughts.
"A baby." She answers.
"Okay, now THAT is doable. Let me just put a few things in here, aaaaaand there we go. You may proceed." The man gestures to the T.V. aisle, and Leah simply turns and starts walking. What happens next is floods of images, sounds, all too much, all overwhelming, all centered on one thing: being a baby. There's a swirl of lights, colors, emotions, sounds, all crossing through her mind until-
With a start, Leah wakes up. Her head is swimming and she can feel her heart pumping. She looks around her to see she's dozed off while sitting on a bench near changing rooms. Did she fall asleep here? She remembered a room filled with T.V.'s and colors and sounds, but...was that just a dream?
"Leah? Leah!" Leah jumped to attention as her name was called, turning to find a worried Tina racing towards her.
"Oh my gosh, where have you been? I was so worried!" The woman tried to check over the teen, and Leah tried to push her away from her personal space.
"Geez, stop! I'm fine! I just...must've fallen asleep here." She answers, though sounding unsure herself.
"You fell asleep in a public place like this? You're lucky no one is around, who KNOWS what kind of horrid things some stranger would do to you if they found you!"
"Ugh, Tina, stop! I'm fine! Just...a little tired."
"Oh, alright. I supposed there was no harm. I just have a few more things to find, then we can leave, okay?"
Leah gives a nod, standing to follow as Tina walks off. She gives one last glance around, sure that she was somewhere else, before running to catch up.
---------
There's a dark hallway.
At the end of the hallway is a desk.
A top that desk is a piece of paper and a pen.
On that paper is a list, with a question at the bottom of the page.
"What kind of hypnosis?"